Value Bearing Items (“VBI”) include among other things, postage, coupons, tickets, gift certificates, currency, money orders, vouchers and the like. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/975,532 entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING COMPUTER-BASED POSTAGE STAMPS” (hereinafter referred to as the “Generic VBI Invention”), the contents and disclosures of which are incorporated in full herein, discloses systems and methods for the creation of generic VBI postage, such that no intended recipient address need be specified, verified or indicated in any way on the created postage. The systems and methods disclosed in the Generic VBI Invention provided for the generation and printing of generic VBI, such as postage, that may be used at any time for any recipient, much like pre-printed postage printed and sold by the United States Postal Service (“USPS”). The term “generic postage” as used herein refers to postage that is non-recipient specific and/or non-date specific.
The Generic VBI Invention disclosed a user interface via which a user could enter postage specifications, such as a mail class and an amount. Some generic Value Bearing Items (VBI) systems provide a user with an option of media type, such as various multi-part label sets, on which to print the particular generic VBI indicia, such as generic postage indicia. For example, a computer-based generic VBI system could provide alternative selections of single-feed sheet labels and label rolls, such as through a user interface display screen drop-down menu.
Media type is the type of physical media on which something, in this case, VBI, is to be printed. A particular-dimensioned envelope is a media type. A particular-dimensioned card is another media type. A particular-dimensioned piece of paper is yet another media type. Various label manufacturers could provide distinct multi-part label set configurations, each label set configuration being yet another media type. Further still, single-part label set configurations could provide distinct label dimensions and spatial relationships between labels.
Each media type may have particular formatting requirements. For example, spatial relationships between components of what is to be printed, e.g., VBI , could vary from one media type to another. As another example, spatial relationships between components of what is to be printed, e.g., VBI, and the dimensions of the media type on which it is to be printed, could vary from one media type to another. That is, for a first distinct single-part label set configuration, a bar code may need to be printed in a particular location on each label of the particular label set. If a second single-part label set configuration were used, using the format for the first distinct label set configuration to print the bar code on the second single-part media type could result in the bar code being printed in a position outside, or partially outside, of the perimeter of a particular label.
Therefore, before printing VBI, a user needs to identify to, in an example case, the generic Value Bearing Items (VBI) system, the particular media type on which to print. One way that media type selection is identified to a system is by selecting from a list of available media types supported by the particular system. Sometimes, lists of available media types are identified with graphic icons and/or text. Once a user has identified to a system a particular media type on which to print, the system, e.g. the generic VBI system, can then generate the information to be printed, e.g., generic VBI indicia, in a format corresponding to the particular media type selected.
The term “form factor” is sometimes used herein to refer to an indicator, or identifier, of a particular media type.
As manufacturers make new media types on which to print information such as VBI, or generic VBI indicia, a system for printing such information, e.g., a generic VBI system, will need to add each new form factor to the respective user interface media type selection feature. As more and more manufacturers make media types on which to print generic VBI indicia, the list of available and supported form factors/media types will become increasingly longer.
Some VBI systems, such as computer-based generic VBI systems, use graphic icons and/or text to identify each media type available and supported by the particular system. A list of available and supported media types/form factors may be presented, for example, in a pull-down menu. As will be understood by someone with ordinary skill in the art, a pull-down menu on any particular user interface display screen is limited in space. As the list of available and supported form factors becomes increasingly longer, some VBI systems decrease the size of displayed graphic icons and/or text in order to accommodate the limited display space of online user interface displays. The smaller the graphic icon and/or the shorter the descriptive text, and the longer the list of available media type options, the more confusing, inconvenient, and/or time-consuming it can be for a user to identify and select the appropriate media type/form factor from the list.
A better way of indicating the media type identification to a computer-based VBI system is needed.